DOST renews bilateral agreements with Indian counterparts

BAGUIO CITY –  A renewed bilateral agreement with India has been signed with the Philippines, according to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) on Thursday.

During an interview with DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. at the opening ceremony of the Luzon leg of the Handa Pilipinas sa Bagong Pilipinas 2025, he shared the renewed agreement will cover this year to 2028.

“This will cover a broad topic but very critical, like for example biotechnology and subject related to smart agriculture, artificial intelligence, battery storage, vaccine development, oceans and atmosphere to name a few,” said Solidum.

“My agreement with my counterpart is just like bilateral agreements with countries… India is a very important partner because they do a lot of (research and development) but they can scale up the results in a cheaper manner,” he added.

He also shared that the previous agreement with India ended in 2022, and would have yielded three projects if not for the Covid-19 pandemic.

Solidum said both countries are now looking into establishing working groups to discuss programs and collaborations.

“We can learn a lot from them and vice versa, [and] they can also learn from the other things they are interested in [like] blue economy and geospatial work, which we also do,” he shared.

The agreement between DOST and India was one of the partnerships resulting from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent five-day state visit to India.

In addition to the renewed DOST bilateral agreement with India, tourists from the Philippines may now enter India on free e-visas as part of “facilitating greater people-to-people exchanges."

Marcos was also able to talk to Indian business leaders and urged them to invest in the Philippines, with directives to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to place effort towards a Philippine-India Preferential Trade Agreement. — RF, GMA Integrated News